Mike Bloomberg on Budget & Economy

Mayor of New York City (Independent)

2008: Wall Street executives deserve bonuses

Bloomberg brought a social conscience to his good fortune, always feeling a responsibility for the less privileged. But his great wealth and Wall Street training also narrowed his vision.
Try as he occasionally does to be Everyman, he looks upon life through upper-class lenses.

Though he made a show as mayor of riding the subways, he insisted during the great recession of 2008-2009 that the failed and irresponsible Wall Street executives deserved their extravagant bonuses.
And he could startle a Brooklyn audience of recession-struck Caribbean immigrants by asking, to illustrate a bureaucratic problem, how many of them played golf.

Turned NYC’s $5 billion deficit into a $4 billion surplus

Today, New York City’s economy is stronger than ever. We’ve turned a $5 billion deficit into a $4 billion surplus. We drove annual unemployment last year to an all-time low, and our bond rating has climbed to an all-time high--Double AA.
The income tax hikes have been rolled back. The property tax hikes have been offset through $400 rebates for homeowners. But we’re not just using the surplus to cut taxes--we’re also saving for the future.

Balanced $6B deficit with higher property taxes

When he took office, Bloomberg faced a city-budget deficit of $6 billion. He balanced the budget through higher property taxes and cuts to city agencies, spread equally with the exception of the Police and Fire Departments.
After Mayor Bloomberg tried to slash the budgets of dozens of arts groups, Citizen Bloomberg sent checks to many of the affected organizations. “It’s not as if they get cut from one place and get added to the other,” a spokesperson says.
“He doesn’t mix up private philanthropy with the city’s budget.”

But the practice seems to contain elements of guilt and strategy. The effect of Bloomberg’s personal largesse has been
to shield him from being seen as a heartless budget-cutter, to buy off dissent. He also avoids angering friends who sit on cultural boards and the museum-going public whose votes he needs: See, I’m not really a Republican.